The word is out! the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has become the place to see the best films in town, and it has warmed my film-going heart to see so many people at the last few screenings I attended. The programs are varied and rich, often with guest speakers, and the prices can’t be beat.

This December, AMMP will launch its first-ever celebration of newly preserved and restored films from the Academy Film Archive as well as from archives, studios, distributors, foundations, and independent filmmakers from around the globe. Present Past  convenes 50 films — including narrative features, shorts, documentaries, and experimental films — from the Academy Film Archive and beyond across 26 programs. Each restoration in Present Past will be celebrating its Los Angeles, North American, or world premiere screening with a dynamic array of filmmakers, subjects, archivists, and preservationists appearing in person to discuss their work. The films’”spanning 1916 to 1998’”will be shown in 16mm, 35mm, DCP, and 4K DCP. This series, programmed by Associate Director of Film Programs K.J. Relth-Miller and Senior Director of Film Programs Bernardo Rondeau, offers viewers a rare opportunity to experience these beloved films in optimal condition on the big screen.   
  
The screenings — which include matinees and late-night screenings — and conversations will take place throughout the first three weeks of December in the museum’s state-of-the-art David Geffen and Ted Mann Theaters. For tickets — available only through advance online reservations on website and mobile app — visit Academy. $10 adults, $7 seniors (age 62+), and $5 students (age 18+ with valid ID) and children (age 17-). Matinees are $5 for all.

SCREENING DETAILS
All screenings, film formats, and guests are subject to change without notice.
Info on the Academy Museum’s website here.

Thu, Dec 1 | 7:30pm | DCP
Harlem on the Prairie  (1937),    Directed by: Sam Newfield. Restoration World Premiere. Restored by the Academy Film Archive with additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Fri, Dec 2 | 7:30pm | 16mm and 4K DCP
With special guest  Cauleen Smith
Daily Rains  (1990),  Directed by: Cauleen Smith. Restoration World Premiere. Restored by the Academy Film Archive.

Drylongso  (1998),  Directed by: Cauleen Smith. Los Angeles Restoration Premiere. Restored by the Criterion Collection, Janus Films, and the Academy Film Archive. Supervised by Cauleen Smith.

Sat, Dec 3 | 3:30pm | 35mm   
Peggy  (1916),  Directed by: Thomas Ince, Charles Giblyn, screening with live accompaniment. Restoration World Premiere. Restored in 2018 by the Academy Film Archive with restoration funding provided by the Louis B. Mayer Foundation.

Sat, Dec 3 | 7pm | DCP
The Misfits  (1961),  Directed by: John Huston. North American Restoration Premiere. Restored in 2018 by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

Call It Murder  (1934),  Directed by: Chester Erskine. Los Angeles Restoration Premiere. Restoration by the Academy Film Archive and Blackhawk Films with funding from the estate of David Shepard from a 35mm nitrate duplicate negative and 35mm nitrate fine grain in the Lobster Films collection.

Sat, Dec 3 | 10pm | 35mm
The Masque of the Red Death  (1964),  Directed by: Roger Corman. Los Angeles Restoration Premiere. Restored in 2018 by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

Sun, Dec 4 | 2pm | DCP and 4K DCP
With special guest  Mirra Bank
Spirit to Spirit: Nikki Giovanni  (1986),  Directed by: Mirra Bank. Restoration World Premiere. Restored in 2022 by the Academy Film Archive and the Women’s Film Preservation Fund, with support from the Leon Levy Foundation.  

With special guest  Debra J. Robinson
I Be Done Been Was Is  (1983),  Directed by: Debra J. Robinson. Restoration World Premiere. Restored in 2021 by the Academy Film Archive.  

Sun, Dec 4 | 7:30pm | DCP
Who Killed Vincent Chin?  (1987),  Directed by: Christine Choy, Renée Tajim. Los Angeles Restoration Premiere. Restored by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation, in association with the Museum of Chinese in America. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, with additional support provided by Todd Phillips.

Mon, Dec 5 | 7:30pm | DCP
With special guests  Joe Lindner  and  Jacqueline Stewart
Preservation Conversation:  Come On, Cowboy  (1949),  Directed by:  
Uncredited. Restoration World Premiere. Restoration by the Academy Film Archive and Blackhawk Films with funding from the estate of David Shepard from the only surviving 35mm nitrate print donated by Giancarlo Esposito and Laurence Fishburne.

Thu, Dec 8 | 7pm | 4K DCP
With special guest  Martha Coolidge
Not a Pretty Picture  (1975),  Directed by: Martha Coolidge. Restoration World Premiere. Restored in 2022 by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.  

Thu, Dec 8 | 10pm | 4K DCP
O Sangue  (1989),  Directed by: Pedro Costa, screening in Portuguese. Los Angeles Restoration Premiere. Image Restoration by André Constantino, Ana Cunha.  

Fri, Dec 9 | 7pm | 16mm
With special guest  Lizzie Borden
Regrouping  (1976),  Directed by: Lizzie Borden. Los Angeles Restoration Premiere. Restored by Anthology Film Archives.

Fri, Dec 9 | 10pm | 16mm
With special guest  Melinda McDowell
This program contains explicit content. No one under 18 admitted.
The Confessions of Curt McDowell,  all films directed by Curt McDowell unless otherwise noted; all restored prints courtesy of the Academy Film Archive. Immense thanks to Melinda McDowell.
Ainslie Trailer  (1972),  Los Angeles Restoration Premiere
Confessions  (1971)
Wieners & Buns Musical  (1972), Los Angeles Restoration Premiere
Ronnie  (1972),  Los Angeles Restoration Premiere
Stinky-Butt  (1974),  Directed by: Curt McDowell and Mark Elinger, Los Angeles Premiere
Beaver Fever  (1974),  Los Angeles Restoration Premiere
Loads  (1980),  Restoration World Premiere

Sat, Dec 10 | 3pm | DCP
Hito-Hata: Raise the Banner  (1980),  Directed by: Robert Nakamura, Dan Kuramoto, screening in English and Japanese with English subtitles. Restoration World Premiere. The 4K restoration is funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation, with additional support from funders of the Visual Communications Archives (Aratani Foundation, California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, California Humanities, Haynes Foundation, and Mellon Foundation).

Sat, Dec 10 | 7pm | DCP
Lady Windermere’s Fan  (1925),  Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch, screening with live accompaniment. Los Angeles Restoration Premiere. Restored by the Museum of Modern Art with the financial support of Matthew and Natalie Bernstein.

Forbidden Paradise  (1924),  Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch, screening with a prerecorded score, Los Angeles Restoration Premiere. Restored by the Museum of Modern Art and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

Sat, Dec 10 | 10pm | DCP  
The World’s Greatest Sinner  (1962),  Directed by: Timothy Carey. Restoration World Premiere. Restored by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

Sun, Dec 11 | 2pm | 35mm, 16mm, and DCP  
With special guests  Jon Boorstin,  Frank Gehry,  Pamela Weir-Quinton
Three by Jon Boorstin, all films directed by Jon Boorstin and restored by the Academy Film Archive.
Exploratorium  (1974)       
Kid City    (1972),  Restoration World Premiere
People Who Make Things  (1970),  Restoration World Premiere

Sun, Dec 11 | 7:30pm | 35mm
The Cardinal  (1963),  Directed by: Otto Preminger. Los Angeles Restoration Premiere. Photochemical preservation by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

Mon, Dec 12 | 7:30pm | 4K DCP
With special guest  Joe Lindner  and  T-Kay Sangwand
Preservation Conversation:  Death of a Bureaucrat  (1966), Directed by: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. North American Restoration Premiere. Restored by the Academy Film archive and the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industrias Cinematográficos.

Thu, Dec 15 | 7:30pm | DCP
It  (1927),  Directed by: Clarence Badger, screening with a prerecorded score.  Restoration World Premiere. Restored by Paramount.

Fri, Dec 16 | 7:30pm | 16mm
With special guest  Greta Snider
This program contains explicit content. No one under 18 admitted.

Radical Archaeologies: Films by Greta Snider
Hardcore Home Movie  (1989),  North American Restoration Premiere
Blood Story  (1990),  Restoration World Premiere
Our Gay Brothers  (1993),  Restoration World Premiere
Futility  (1989),  North American Restoration Premiere       
Quarry Movie  (1999),  North American Restoration Premiere
Portland  (1996),  North American Restoration Premiere       
Flight  (1997),  North American Restoration Premiere
No-Zone  (1993),  World Premiere of New Print

Sat, Dec 17 | 3pm | DCP  
Aventurera  (1950),  Directed by: Alberto Gout, screened in Spanish.  Restoration World Premiere. New restoration by Permanencia  Voluntaria and Cinema Preservation Alliance from original camera negative, provided by Cineteca Nacional de Mexico, with the support of The Academy Film Archive and Janus Film.

Sat, Dec 17 | 6pm | DCP | FREE ADMISSION
With special guests  Joe Dante  and  Jon Davison
Joe Dante and Jon Davison present  The Movie Orgy  (1968), Directed by: Joe Dante and Jon Davison. Restoration World Premiere. Restored by the American Genre Film Archive.

Sat, Dec 17 | 7:30pm | 4K DCP
Nostalghia  (1983),  Directed by: Andrei Tarkovsky, screened in Russian. North American Restoration Premiere. Restored in 4K in 2022 by CSC–Cineteca nazionale in collaboration with Rai Cinema at Augustus Color laboratory, from the original negatives and the original soundtrack preserved at Rai Cinema.

Sun, Dec 18 | 2pm | DCP
Two by Lee Grant,  Directed by: Lee Grant
The Stronger  (1976),  Restoration World Premiere. Restored by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.  
Tell Me a Riddle  (1976),  Restoration World Premiere. Restored by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.  

Sun, Dec 18 | 7:30pm | DCP  
Frenchman’s Creek  (1944),  Directed by: Mitchell Leisen. Los Angeles Restoration Premiere. Restored by Universal.  

Mon, Dec 19 | 7:30pm  
With special guest  Mindy Johnson
Preservation Conversation: “The Only Woman Animator” – Women at the Dawn of an Industry.  Restoration World Premiere.